George R.R. Martin Helps Me With My Housework

If you’re familiar with this blog, or with me at all, you probably know that doing housework does not make my list of top two million things to do. There are SO many other interesting ways to spend time. I count among them…

Filling out those 15 forms prior to a doctor’s visit because they’ve just “updated their system”

Arguing with my husband

Having a mammogram

At least all of the above offer something new and different with each experience. Unlike housework, which is the same old same old BORING experience every time.

For this reason, I love the B-52s. They wrote an amazing song called Housework (what else?) that has spoken to me since I first heard it in college. Check out these lyrics:

Don’t need a man to treat me mean

I need a man to help me clean

Someone who’s heaven sent

Someone to help pay rent

Someone to share dreams and wishes

Someone to help me do the dishes.

(Thankfully, a few years post-college, I married a man who could iron his own shirts. But that still leaves a lot of housework to do though… ugg. )

Anyway, after years of singing this to myself as I dusted and dish washed, I’ve finally discovered something that is helping me get through the tedium of housework! And it’s something that five years ago I would have never thought I’d enjoy:

listening to audiobooks.

(Yeah, I know a ton of you have probably beat me to this realization, but it was a big deal to me because I always swore I needed to actually READ a book to enjoy it.)

Luckily, I found this wasn’t always true when a friend introduced me to the audio versions of Harry Potter narrated by Jim Dale. So excellent.

This discovery, along with winning an iPod nano, revolutionized my housework experience. I could walk around my house with the ipod in my pocket, earbuds in my ears, and be entertained while doing mind-numbing work!

Soon I asked for a yearlong membership to Audible for my birthday. (This is the best deal out there, because you get to download 12 books for $120 no matter what the price tag per individual book is.) After that I started cleaning house while burning through the books. But when I went through six of my twelve books in the first two months I realized something had to change.

I needed to use my credits to purchase books that took a longer time to read. Tomes that would stretch out for days and days of doing laundry.

Hello Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.

Ten dollars for 33 hours and 50 minutes of listening pleasure for Book One alone. That’s only about 30 cents an hour! I’m totally worth that.

Of course the Game of Thrones books are sometimes so brutal that they’re hard to listen to. If you want to see someone cringing while cleaning a lint filter come on over.

Is my house sparkling clean now? No! But has the time I’ve put into attempting to reach that goal been more entertaining? You bet.

I encourage you to try this! When listening to books instead of reading them, it’s important to pick books with great narrators. One of my favorites so far is Jesse Eisenberg, who reads Holly Black’s Curse Worker series. You can listen to a sample here. I always check out the narrator before downloading a title.

If Audible isn’t for you, see what your library has to offer. Many libraries offer free audiobook downloads. Audible just works best for me, for several reasons.

I love that I can meet great characters and explore new worlds while accomplishing the necessary evils of housework.

Well, I’ve gotta go. A pile of dishes is calling my name.

Come on George, we have work to do.

***

Pssst: Wanna hear the whole song by the B-52s? You can listen to it here:

Audible is Au-some! I was just listening to Spooky Action at a Distance while washing salad greens. I do both fiction and science books (ones that don’t have a lot of equations) through Audible and don’t even notice how long it’s taking me to clean the bathrooms. 😀

Thanks Patrick. The thing about the Game of Thrones book is the NARRATOR pronounces the names differently from one to the next. He changed pronunciations and dialects even about half way through the series, much to the chagrin of the fans. If you ever have so much time to kill that you really want to waste it, go read some of the outraged listeners’ comments. Very funny. My favorite: IS DANI SUDDENLY A LEPRECHAUN?

Kami, I am so with you on this!!!! Audible app on my phone, wireless headphones (so you don’t get tangled up with the iron or vacuum cleaner) and I’m off!! I like to “re-read” books this way sometimes. You should check out Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series – tomes like GRRM but I think even better writing. The narrator, Davina Porter, is fabulous and changes her accent from English to Scots to French with no problem – you begin to “recognize” the different characters’ voices. Be careful though – I used to listen in the gym and realized I was gasping at one story plot and laughing out loud at another…..didn’t understand for a while that people were able to hear me, I was so into the story! Sometimes I’d even spend 10 extra minutes on the treadmill just to “hear” what happened!!! And, you should be getting a free credit each month that you can use to buy these big huge ones. Love the blog!!!!

Interesting topic, Kami. I started the first book on the series but had to return it before I finished. I need to buy a copy. Oh yeah… a couple weeks ago, I flipped out when I was processing books at Goodwill and came across a donated copy of the boy project! Very cool. (Of course I have my own copy.)